Costa Rica

Our trip is ending.  So many thoughts and emotions that each of us is feeling as our return nears.  We have a couple of more days here and I’ll have a very detailed and hopefully enjoyable summary post that I am focusing on, but first a few short words about Costa Rica.  We spent the final two weeks of our trip in this beautiful country.  After 6 weeks of nearly non-stop action in Australia, Peru and Ecuador, we scheduled very little for our final two weeks, wanting to be on a beach where the kids could catch up on their studies, with the option of an occasional adventure.  We rented a small place near the beach at a small village in the southwest part called Manuel Antonio.  The better part of each day was spent studying (and teaching), but the study breaks were awesome!  The beach here is stunning, about 1 mile long and beautiful sand.  Nearby the kids enjoyed surfing lessons for an hour or so each day, followed by an hour or so of body boarding.  These two activities left them pummeled and exhausted.  Traci took me running almost every day (she didn’t miss one…I missed a few) which left me similarly pummeled and exhausted.  Also, there are no photographs but there are witnesses and both Traci and I can officially say we surfed.  I have nothing except apologies for those unfortunate bystanders who were caught between me and the beach.  Very fun.  The kids insisted that we join them, and surfing is now officially checked on my bucket list.  However brief, but my surfing career is officially over. 

There were a few other adventures (white water rafting, visiting the namesake Manuel Antonio national park) but for the most part we enjoyed a relatively empty schedule.  Hayden celebrated his 11^th birthday this past week, and he and I went “inshore” fishing for half a day, followed by surfing lessons, his parasailing with Halle, body boarding, Traci’s famous beef enchiladas, gooey M&M cookies with vanilla ice-cream and his favorite movie “Grown Ups.”  Good parenting until the last part.  A very good day for all! 

Costa Rica is a very beautiful country.  Friendly people and easy to get around but surprisingly expensive as most basics are imported.  Probably not too different price wise from a beach destination in the U.S., but there is enough lushness and exoticness to make it interesting. Yet another place where I’d like to spend more time further exploring.  Below are a few pictures.  3 a.m. shuttle on July 31^st and we should be back in Seattle in time for dinner.  Will post my final (I think) thoughts next week!

Think this looks like a disinterested or dysfunctional family that has already learned the basics of rafting?  Holy smokes!  I didn't take these pictures and pictures never lie so I'm going to share a few...and this guide and the river were awesome so no excuses.  No one was posing, and what in the heck am I thinking and doing?  Yikes!

That's more like it.  We're back.  We know there is a picture being taken and we are one SERIOUSLY happy family!

OK so I think that in this and all of the following rafting pictures that the photographer just so happened to catch me at my worst moments.  I mean we're not scared of a few small waves in a lukewarm river!

That's more like it.  I have a huge smile in this picture, the epitome of bravery!

For some reason the photographer captured another picture of what appears to be fear but what is really family emergency training.  Fear not, close your eyes and open your mouths and inhale strongly.  Our kids are so well-trained and listen so well.

Seriously!  Every picture this guy took made me look like the world's lamest, grumpiest, most scared man. 

A lot of olympic caliber athletes assume this gorilla-like facial expression during their moments of greatest duress.

Assessing, evaluating and showing not a hint of fear.  One of my favorite pics of Halle.  In most photos she's been out of view behind me, mostly because I panicked and buried her without choice.  Sydney is smiling as the rest of us panic.

I assume my athletic mouth position and do all the work while the rest relax.  I think that I'm a lot like Michael Jordan here.  He often stuck his tongue out when under pressure, and he often had to carry his team. Apparently no one else heard the guide yell "Paddle Paddle Paddle! or more likely I didn't hear him yell "Stop Paddling!"  Note the ferns in our helmets as we attempt to go camo.  Halle is in that special place known as 'Halle's world"

"Umm.. Dad could I sit up front now because every time there is a little ripple in the river you purse your mouth and puff your cheeks and lean back and squish me into the floorboards?"

A little respite from the river at a nearby waterfall.  Hayden is still camoflaged.

After having Halle and Sydney switch places, and after a little waterfall break, I really settled down and relaxed and enjoyed things.

Hayden turns 11.  He and Halle enjoy their first lift off Parasailing

Adios Amigos.  300' up up and away!

So excited it was so awesome!

This guy used to be a beach "snow cone man."  Now after 17 consecutive days of our family's business he has retired.

Body boarding

Halle was the champion body boarder, being able to ride the smallest waves way up on shore

Sydney not only gets a surf lesson but gets a little royal treatment from her instructor

The elusive and endangered squirrel monkey.  These are about 1 foot tall and incredibly agile.  Troops of them came by our house every other day or so.

Marlin and Nemo you can sleep soundly now, Coral has been avenged!

Why other fish aren't crazy about barracudas

Hayden foul hooking a trevally.  He can fish so well that even if the fish aren't biting, he will still manage to catch them.

Lots of colorful critters like this

The curiously named green iguana

A male howler monkey.  Guess how you can tell it's a male?  Walk with pride laddie!  

Three-toed sloth.  Super cool, elusive animal

The cheeky "white faced monkey."  You can just look at this guy and know he is a malicious, onery punk.

The "Jesus Christ" lizard, so named as they can walk (or rather run) on water.  Incredibly prehistoric.

A fine example of a black iguana.  This feller was about 3' long.

Sydney ripping it up

Halle in focus....she's goofy footed.  Must have gotten that from one of her grandparents.

Hayden gets it done!

Ecuador

Peru wore us out.  Don’t get me wrong we didn’t have any regrets, but between the Inca Trail, the altitude, and a lot of final activities and transitions we left Peru rather exhausted.  After a short 2 hour flight, we landed in Quito, Ecuador to begin our next two week phase.  Our kids were busting at the seams with excitement to see their cousins Chase (14) and Kate (11) (as well as their Aunt Crissy and Uncle Todd of course).  Shortly after we arrived, we were joined by the Whites and it was great to see such close friends again after 11 months.  I had the feeling, however, that it wasn’t going to be a particularly restful time.

Our itinerary in Ecuador was focused on three areas:  Amazon Jungle, Galapagos Islands, and a few days at a ranch south of Quito in the highlands.  Prior to visiting the jungle, however, we had a great transition day in Quito.  Quito is a fairly small city compared to Lima and we spent our first day exploring the old colonial part of town, taking a gondola to the top of a nearby 13,500’ mountain (Quito is about 9000’ altitude), and visiting a nearby equator museum where we straddled the equator and the guide performed several interesting experiments with the kids, such as the Coriolus effect  (water goes straight down and out a drain on the equator, and then just a few feet to either side it goes counterclockwise in the north and clockwise in the south).  Great day and a great guide with just the right blend of sights and activities and all geared toward the kids.  

Rested and ready, we boarded a 30 minute flight to the amazon and a town called Coca.  From here it was a two hour trip down the Napo River to Sacha Lodge.  Sacha Lodge was built about 20 years ago and it is about 50 miles from the nearest civilization, deep in the jungle on a 5,000 acre tract.  Suffice it to say we felt very deep in the jungle.  Some highlights:

·        Swimming with Piranhas.  Yep.   Never would have believed it but kids and guides were catching small piranhas about 15’ from where other kids were swimming.  Apparently most piranhas are vegetarians and as long as you are not severely bleeding while you are swimming they are harmless.   In addition, there were these crocodile beasts called Caimans that were hanging in the shallows another 20’ or so away.  No worries, as long as it was daylight, we were all assured.  Swimming was a delight, and although clean, the water had the coloration of Coke.

·         Heights.  Or fear thereof.  We climbed a staircase built around a huge, 120’ jungle giant tree called a Kapok with 4/9 of our party scared of heights.  To top that off there are these 3-150’ towers (pseudo mini Eiffel towers) with two suspension bridges between them that create a spectacular walkway above the jungle canopy.  Crissy (most), Sydney (also most) and I (near-most) were incredibly terrified walking across these planks of doom as pictures will attest.  All somehow survived.

·         Canoe Rides.  We piled in canoes and day and night toured some small tributaries to the lake. Rather like a Disneyland boat ride that was real.  Incredible foliage, birds, and the best being the sighting of about a 15’ caiman.  

·         Children.  While our kids had the cousins for entertainment, there were also about 10 other kids of similar ages at the lodge.  We haven’t spent that much time with other families with kids on our trip, and as a testament to this the 4 adults left the all the kids enthralled with a card game with all the kids while we returned to our cabin to play cribbage.  Awesome.

We spent 3 nights and two full days in the jungle and it was super interesting.  The jungle is so incredibly lush and wild.  After a return transition afternoon and night in Quito (where the adults all went for a run in a huge city park…and as a note running isn’t easy at 9,500’), we boarded our plane for the Galapagos, about 600 miles west of Ecuador’s mainland.  We have been looking forward to the Galapagos for our entire trip.  As with Peru this part of our trip was planned well in advance and the entire time in Ecuador was centered on the Galapagos.   The main part of our trip was on a boat called the Galapagos Explorer II, which toured 5 or 6 islands.  It was a huge ship, about 300’ long with a capacity of about 100 people (plus probably a similar number of crew).  To put that in perspective, it was about 1/3 the size of the Titanic or about ¾ the size of Paul Allen’s yacht “The Octopus”.    Very cool ship and onboard once again the kids with their cousins were pretty much on their own.  They had a big chess board and all of the kids can play and play well.  Each morning and afternoon we would tour a different island or area of an island to explore the animals and fauna.  In addition to some spectacular, unique species, what makes the islands truly unique is the complete lack of fear that the animals have of humans, and how close humans can get to the animals.  A few highlights:

·        Boobies.  Oh glorious boobies.   Boobies got their name due to their rather clownish, awkward walk and were called “bobos” by the early settlers here, which in turn morphed in to boobies.  We saw thousands of red-footed boobies, the rather drab Nasca (brown footed) and the most spectacular blue-footed boobies.  The most amazing sighting was when we were on a small zodiac enroute to a dock and a huge flock of thousands of blue footed boobies were going after a school of their favorite small fish, diving in a frenzy after their meal.

·        Iguanas.  Land and marine. The land iguanas were a brilliant gold color.  The marine iguanas were gray, perfectly adapted to the lava beaches.  We saw thousands of the marine iguanas, which was pretty much lizard heaven for Hayden

·       Tortoises.  The Galapagos are famous for their tortoises, having the largest in the world.  I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in their “presentation” as I was expecting to find them in the wild.  We saw a bunch at the Charles Darwin Research Center upon our arrival, but when we disembarked on a venture to see them “in the wild” we (and all visitors) were driven to a farm high on Santa Cruz Island and saw the big lummoxes roaming around a farm.  Not exactly what was expected but they were still very cool.  Absolutely huge (up to 600lbs) and literally moving at a snail’s pace.  No predators.  No worries no hurries.

·         Sea Lions.  These were super cool.  I think they’d be more appropriately called “Sea Dogs” as their mannerisms are remarkably similar (as is their body weight) to our Labrador Retriever.  They are completely comfortable with people getting close to them.  We were able to swim within several feet of them, but on land you need to give them a bit more room, as they have really sharp teeth and are unpredictable enough (and protective enough) that you need to give them a few meters.  They are everywhere, and on San Cristobal Island, they have pretty much taken over the beach and boardwalk; occupying playgrounds and park benches as if they were put there for their sole benefit.

·        The islands.  Really volcanic, really dry and harsh place to live.   There are more people living in the islands but the islands and oceans are pristine, except for the near constant smell of bird guano.

After the ship, we spent two more days at a tented camp called Galapagos Safari Camp.  This wasn’t really a camp but rather a fairly posh hotel with lovely bedroom tents.  From here we ventured to some really fabulous local hideouts, including a really narrow but deep salt water fissure where we all enjoyed a little cliff jumping and swimming.  In addition, we ventured to a pristine beach called “Tortuga.”  The sand was powdery white (from shells and coral) and we all enjoyed some surfing on the gentle waves.  Or to be accurate all enjoyed surfing except me as I just didn’t have quite the same weight to board buoyancy ratio as the kids, nor adequate flexibility and athleticism to get up quickly.   Delicious humble pie.  It was great, however, to stand in the water and help the kids who all enjoyed multiple, long rides.  After surfing we did a bit of biking, followed by the kids exhausting themselves on the camp’s trampoline.

Filled with great memories, we departed the Galapagos, returned to Quito, then traveled about 90 minutes to the southwest to the lovely Hacienda La Alegria.  The name is “the happy ranch” and it was certainly that.  A working dairy farm with over 60 cows and 30 horses, the hacienda opened for tourism about 10 years ago.  Run by an absolutely lovely couple named Gabriel and Patty, it was a perfect finale for our time in Ecuador.  We enjoyed two long morning horse rides, and the kids all found even more time to practice their riding skills in the arena.  In addition the kids just absolutely loved the farm; from milking cows, playing with the 2 German Shepherds, and seeing a newborn calf.  I feel guilty yet again for having sired kids that are meant for a farm yet live in a big city.

So Ecuador is yet another place that our family loved and could have enjoyed much more of:   so many great, healthy outdoor activities, an incredible climate (much cooler than expected), and very kind, welcoming appreciative people.  It was also fantastic to spend time with the cousins.  For nearly two weeks we all got on amazingly well, and it was truly a treat for us to have them make the long journey to spend so much of their time with us.  As I write this it is one year from the day we left Seattle on this marvelous journey. 

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. Crissy's first small plane ride in the Galapagos. Had to start the pictures with this one. In addition to heights, she's scared even more of airplanes, especially small ones. What is so funny is not that Todd and Hayden are laughing, or that Halle is completely unaware of anything within a 10 foot radius as she reads her book, but rather that Sydney (sitting in front of Halle) saw this and despite uncontrollable giggles and shaking hands Sydney took this with her Ipad without looking backwards. Traci and Sydney laughed uncontrollably at Crissy's misery for 30 minutes after this, with Halle and Crissy being completely unaware of it, for very different reasons.

With the White's high above Quito

Halle and Chase in the gondola

How can you not love Sydney?

At the Equator museum, where the local guide was excitedly talking about the penis fish, which in certain Amazonian rivers will swim "upstream" and lodge themselves in the penis of an unsuspecting urinator, and with growth, he explained, they sometimes require the complete removal of the effected area.  Good chuckle, thanks for sharing that so blatantly and unfiltered with everyone.

Straddling the equator

Attempting to balance an egg on the head of a nail on the equator

Success (for the guide)

Traci trying to walk the equator with eyes closed

Water straight down the drain at the equator

Clockwise south of the equator

Counterclockwise north of the equator

Embarking on the Napo river in the Amazon

Traci and Kate are first in the jungle lake

Sydney at Sacha Lodge

Two prehistoric Hoatzin birds in the jungle.   These act basically as reptiles when young then develop feathers and live in the low trees, but they can barely fly

A well camouflaged ground frog

Guide Luis explains the protective bark of a jungle tree

Foggy camera but a typical section of jungle trail...the large root of a Kapok tree

Halle gets a little muddy

The viewing platform built around a huge Kapok tree

The view from the top

Cousins

Cute little feller caught about 15' from the kid's swim dock

Hayden's first piranha

Halle and her world famous (by now) belly flop.  The quality of her belly flops is incredible.  She hits belly first to lessen the impact (as evident by the photo) and the pleasure of crowd approval exceeds any pain of impact.  This beauty was launched from about 7'.  I'd be afraid to try it if I was standing knee deep.

Owl butterfly.  The name says it all.  To think of the evolution of this is mind-numbing.  What is even more amazing is if it gets batted to the ground, it crawls along with it's wings folded together and giving it the appearance of a snake's head (upper left and right of the wing tips....see the close up below)

The head of the snake

Sydney makes her way slowly across the suspension bridge, 150' above the jungle floor.  Notice the space between her and the other kids in front.  When we were halfway across, I bounced the bridge (rather surprisingly even for me) and I still don't think she has forgiven me

Crissy.  Note the upper chest sweat.  The only person more terrified than Sydney.  I can't believe they are still married after Todd did nothing but laugh at her misery.

And then it's all just super fun when you're only 5' above the ground

Looking up at the canopy walk and tower

Exploring a tributary of the lake at night

OK this is a pretty cool video of a flock of blue footed boobies (I know it is a flock of seagulls so am using that term...it might be a boob of boobies but am going with flock until I research) going after a school of fish.   Definitely our animal highlight of the Galapagos.

Our first blue footed booby in the Galapagos

Baby sea lion squealing for it's mom while she's out fishing

Sally Lightfoot crab.  There were billions of these

Nest of marine iguanas

Marine iguana mug shot

Hanging with the iguanas

Halle and Kate strike the pose, while Hayden watches over a baby sea lion that commandeered his towel

Todd with a Nasca Booby and a good example of how close people get to the animals.  There are nests that line the walking paths.

Young Nasca Booby.  The colors of the birds are so vivid, and you can enjoy them without $3,000 binoculars

There are approximately 100,000 more birds in this picture than are visible.  Swarming.

If you get this for Christmas don't be surprised.  Our ship in the background.

Two of one of the many subspecies of the famous Darwin Finch

This is a male frigate bird.  They inflate this "gobbler" throat skin to attract the females for mating.  I guess it's kind of a bird thing but thankfully the kids haven't asked too many questions about why I'm still wearing an orange life vest when we left the Galapagos 7 days ago.

Our super guide Israel, and a good example of the birds (in this case Frigates) nesting along the paths

Hanging with the sea lions after snorkeling

By now you should know this type of booby

A dad with his chic.  Just a real testament to men and husbands around the world.

Lizard boy with a land iguana

And a Hayden photo of his new best friend

Like a fine red wine...

Military museum trying on a helmet that is too large

Sneaking up on a 500lb tortoise

Still trying to think of the best caption for this:  "What the heck are you doing back there?" or "How to ensure a hernia while on vacation!" or "Don Rickles get's kicked out of the Galapagos!"  Let me know your favorite

I love having a decent camera and being able to get close ups like this.

One of about 20 onboard chess matches

Hayden does the funky chicken jump from a really cool saltwater fissure

Crissy shows that she still has the stuff necessary to impress

Todd flexing his muscles at Tortuga Beach.  He threw out his back surfing and was pretty useless for 3 days afterward, but his determination was inspirational

The cousins show who owns the beach

Todd and Halle after a short bike ride

This guy thought he pretty much owned the town, which he really did

Sydney finally being able to get back on a horse, with Hacienda owner Gabriel teaching her a few tricks

Hayden adds a llama to his list of animal ridden on this trip (horse, donkey, camel, elephant, his dad, and several unsuspecting stray dogs)

Traci and her little brother Todd

Kate and Halle, the physical bopsy twins, having a little long ride competition.  Like Halle, Kate got up on her first attempt. 

Just out of Hacienda Alegria.  9 novices that were supported with nearly as many experts.  It was obvious that they didn't trust us.  The countryside and views were specacular

Sydney getting chased.  Get used to it boys.

A lot of kids galloping simultaneously in a relatively enclosed space.  No falls, no broken bones.  Amazing.  Look at Halle's unprompted smile in the foreground.

Chase milks his first cow and sprays himself in the belly instead of putting the milk in the bucket.  Relax Todd and Crissy, you've got a few more worry few years with this guy!

Halle and her incredible palamino "Whiskey"

Gabriel teaches Hayden how to clean the horse's hooves, while Kate does a fine job grooming

A local bareback race in a village south of Quito.  These guys are nuts.

O.K. I know I've posted a lot of pictures but Traci took this one on our last full day and it was just too cute to pass.  Sydney rides bareback behind Kate.

Llama riding round two.  Couldn't pass on this smile.

We send off the Whites on their earlier flight as Hayden and Halle are attacked by the owner's German Shepherd.  Guide Santiago and his son Juan Estaban on the left.

Preview of our 2012 Christmas card